Totally agree with this. We need more Dolphins.
BUT we shouldn't just be relying on generous Whales like @fulltimegeek to artificially be cloning them by the dozen.
Aspiring minnows need to get down to work the works, stave off the temptation to power down when they get a few hundred bucks, and buy some steem while it is still just feasible to do so.
I made it to Dolphin at the end of last year buying the last batch of steem needed the day before the price shot up!
What I hadn't realised when I became a Dolphin was how few there are. To become one of less than 1400 in the whole world could make me feel endangered.
Suddenly I have been propelled into a somewhat mythical world. I am the only Dolphin in Wales, and I am one of only a handful amongst the Homesteaders community.
It is great being able to help the minnows with useful votes but there urgently needs to be more of us.
One Dolphin can't support all of Wales !
I agree with you about the aspiring minnow powering up whenever they can. I see so many who simply do not do that. Looking in their account we see SBD moved out.
Sure there are many who really do need the money and for them, I understand. However, people should keep as much as they can on the platform as they can.
Yes - hopefully with a rising steem price people will see it as more of an investment to hold on to it and power up.
I have come across quite a few who joined in last summers boom months, accumulated a few hundred and then come the darker, flater, slower days of October / November cashed out.
I suspect they regret that now 😊
Hi
I am a new dolphin (a couple months a dolphin, 10 months or so on Steemit) the grind to dolphin is real. How do I connect with other dolphins to help each other in the grind to Orca?
I see the value in helping minnows and plankton, no problem. I made my 8000 th upvote recently.
But I think my journey towards Orca requires more dolphin to dolphin interaction. Any ideas or suggestions?
My dear friend, I will be a dolphin in a few days. It took a lot of hard work but I am going to get there. :) You are not alone.
😊
I agree, @pennsif! It's taken me some time to become a Dolphin, all through posting. It's an interesting position to be in. I seem to constantly adjust my voting approach, but I really liked @jedau's perspective that we invest in Steemians like we would invest in cryptocurrencies. It's hard to invest in folks that don't invest, themselves, here on the blockchain as well. Especially homesteading folks, because the idea of investing in long-term production capacity is so central to homesteading. Our Steem Power is like our homestead soil.
The other part that's been interesting about being a Dolphin (still a small one) is finally understanding how much we can vote. I see so many Dolphins hoarding their voting power. This lets us bestow upvotes of a couple dollars on ourselves or a few other people. But we can vote over and over and over -- at 100%. Even though our voting power may go down to 30%, we can still give higher rewards than most people on this platform. The more that Dolphins vote (and even high-powered Minnows), the more balance there would be in the platform.
Hi @haphazard-hstead - thanks for the @jedau link - most interesting. Will definitely revisit my thoughts on this.
The idea of how invested people are in the platform has just come up for me in the context of a new monthly grant giving project I have just launched. Inevitably that will be a criteria I will have in the back of my mind at least when deciding who to award grants to.
I'm still trying different approaches with voting at the moment. I'm currently working on my #SignUp100 campaign to get 100 more people on to steemit this year - particularly in Wales. That brings with it some degree of moral, and practical, obligation to fully support the new people I am onboarding - at least until they are past the initial few danger weeks when rewards are generally very sparse.
But as the numbers grow, if I am doing my job properly, that will become an ever more tricky task to balance well. 5K+ SP is very useful but it can't work miracles !
Your effort to bring on 100 people is admirable! And it will require supporting them for awhile, for sure. It's a complicated ecosystem here on the Steem blockchain, especially now with more and more platforms and projects connected to it. We all have to keep adjusting -- keeps us on our toes! ; )
This is my position ^^^ I am trying to post quality content daily and comment/interact with other posts. I have been powering up everything I can spare trying to get to 500sp. I want to reach a point where I can help others succeed as well as invest in the platform and my future!
👍
I agree. The only way is to zoom through the lower levels, them grind it out between 55 and 60 (thats where I am now and it seems to take forever to inch up to the next level).
Just keep posting daily, post good content and eventually, it gets seen. Ive been lucky that Ive had several posts picked up by whales. In each case, though happy to get the rewards, i noticed an almost obscene difference between my normal post returns and these isolated cases.
Curating good content at every opportunity has earns a consistent amount. This is what we can do best at the lower levels of the Steemit ecosystem to help both ourselves and other minnows inch our way upwards.
Better to view whale curated posts as anomolies and stick to earning the rewards.
Yes, just keep at it is the only answer.
This is my position ^^^ I am trying to post quality content daily and comment/interact with other posts. I have been powering up everything I can spare trying to get to 500sp. I want to reach a point where I can help others succeed as well as invest in the platform and my future!
It's the only way. At least you will know thatvfollowets and upvoters are genuinely interested in your work.
I agree:)